Nighttime Job
by kekame
Summary: This story is a bizarre and old, and I'd really rather no one read it cause it was my first fic ever. Just because its better than something YOU could write, doesn't mean its good. It stays up for sentimental values only. P
1. Default Chapter

Well, to put it lightly, everyone in hyotei thought he was the laziest kid in the world. He couldn't care less. His team members knew him to be hardworking on the courts, and that's what mattered. Besides, sleeping before a match not only gave him extra energy and endurance, but relaxed him as well. It was a perfect way for his opponents to let their guard down. However, this particular bright, sunny day, Jirou was a little restless. As tired as he was, dehydration was more of a problem at the moment. Bleary-eyed, he rose from his resting spot on the bench and stumbled toward the vending machine across the park. On his way, he passed the seigaku bench. They looked a bit less impressive than their reputation suggested, he thought off-handedly, but he knew better. He knew what it felt to be crushed in a match against seigaku. Suddenly he tripped and nearly fell on his face over a sleeping body laying against a tree. "huh?!"

After he regained balance, he turned to see a sleepy kid peering at him through half open eyes. Who the heck slept before a tennis match except him?! And judging by the jersey, this kid was a seigaku regular too. "Um… what are you doing there?"  
Ryoma flashed his, 'you-just-asked-a-really-stupid-question look' but answered, "Taking a nap."  
Jirou was not getting the answer he wanted. "Are you playing today?"  
Ryoma nodded. "Then, why are you sleeping?"  
Annoyed, Ryoma evaded the question, "Look, who are you?"  
"haha, how rude of me! I'm Akutagawa Jirou. Just Jirou is fine. And you?"  
"Echizen Ryoma."  
Oh, actually, Jirou had heard this name before. This kid was pretty famous on the local tennis scene.  
"yoroshiku" and Jirou flashed a big smile at the freshman. Suddenly he remembered something important that he hadn't slept through, "Oh! I remember you! you played against atobe! That was awesome!"  
Ryoma just replied, "It was just a practice match, you know."  
"Oh," said Jirou, just as a buddy of Ryoma's sauntered up, "Well I'd like to play a practice match against you too!"  
Without replying to Jirou, Ryoma looked at his friend and said, "Oy, Momo-chan-senpai"  
Without replying to Echizen, Momo looked straight at the handsome hyotei kid standing in front of him and said, "You're in the business of practice matches? How about tonight at the park? There's no one there we couldn't beat, even high school kids, so we'd have the court all to ourselves."  
Ryoma was suddenly jealous now that Momo had taken interest, and even more jealous because he knew that he wouldn't be able to go no matter what because he had to work at night. (and really, with school and tennis, what other time would he work?) Jirou looked sadly at Momo, "sorry, I'd love to, but I have a nighttime job."  
Aww, that's too bad, thought Momo. "well, I guess it can't be helped. Where do you work at?"   
Jirou smiled, "I work at the pet store. I know that Eiji kid of yours pretty well."  
Momo laughed, "Yep, that's our Kikumaru-senpai"  
but Ryoma was staring wide-eyed at Jirou. "You work at the pet store? Wow."  
"Wow what?" inquired Jirou, wondering what was amazing about him working at a pet store.  
"I start there tonight." Answered Ryoma, "I just got hired."  
At that, Jirou laughed, "Hey cool! That means we can be co-workers and rivals at the same time! It will be awesome!"  
Ryoma only grunted, "nn" in reply, but deep down felt glad to know someone that was going to be working with him. Meanwhile, the silent wheels were turning in Jirou's head. He had already thought of a pick-up line to use on Ryoma at work. '_hey look… everyone else is doing their thing… let's do our thing._' This one worked well in the spring when all the creatures… tended to take a fancy to each other, if ya know what I mean. That, and he knew Ryoma's mind would probably go straight for the inuendo, but he could pretend to be talking about anything, like sweeping the floor, or sleeping. Heh heh… why didn't people call _him_ tensai? A part of his rational brain said, 'because they call you lazy.' But he ignored it.

Snapping back to reality, he said, "Well, its almost time for my match. I've got to get going. I'd love to play either of you on Saturday when I'm free."  
Momo and Ryoma raced to get the words, "I'll be there." out of their mouth first.  
Seeing them both reply, eager and similtaneous, Jirou flashed an award winning smile, "Well, I'll see you then."   
Looking at Momo, he said, "I'll bring a doubles partner." And Momo nodded. Jirou walked away with a smirk. He checked the work schedule in his pocket. Sure enough, Ryoma was on the schedule tonight. _It will be so much fun_, He thought. _There will be so many inuendos, but he will think I have no idea what I'm saying_. Looking a few weeks ahead on the schedule, he saw that he and Ryoma were working alone. Jirou cracked open his ponta and smirked. Atobe briefly wondered what Jirou was so happy about. Jirou caught his glance and threw an 'if-only-you-knew look' back. Heh heh. He stretched out in the sun. It felt like he was sleeping on air. Nothing could disturb his day now. Even as he slept, a big smile light up his face. 


	2. Ryoma's intense training

_Jirou checked the large wall clock above the door. 6:15. In 45 minutes Echizen would be joining him. "Heh heh" he chuckled to himself inaudibly as he thought up more clever remarks to try on the shorty. He turned to start stocking shelves of dog food when the store manager approached him and shouted, "Oy, Jirou!"  
"Oh, hello Mizuki-san."  
"Hey, I need you to train this noob..."  
Trying to hide his enthusiasm, Jirou smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I can do that." _

Before long, a dark-haired punk with a white baseball cap strolled in. 'well well,_' thought Jirou, '_Mr. Short, Dark, and Handsome is 10 minutes late to work._' However, he decided against pointing that out and instead blurted, "Oy! Echizen! Guess what? I'm training you tonight!"  
Ryoma was taken by suprise at the enthusiasm, "Uhh... okay."  
"Well," fumbled Jirou, "Mizuki-san was going to, but he had to skip out on some urgent business."  
"Urgent business, huh?" Judging by what he knew of Mizuki from playing tennis against him, Ryoma decided it was highly suspicious.  
"Yeah," Muttered Jirou, "urgent business. What do you supposed _that_ is?"  
They both looked at each other with the same thought and burst out laughing.  
"Haha! I'll bet he has a girlfriend! Let's check the caller ID!"  
Rushing over to the front desk, the two gathered around a small, white box.  
"Hmm... lets see... Petco called earlier about some parrots... at 4:30... Fishworld called and complained about some tanks... at 5:16..."  
'_wow_,' thought ryoma, '_this can hardly be considered training for work._' but in any case, he was highly amused, so he kept quiet.  
"Ahh!!! Here we go! Personal calls!"  
Ryoma glanced at the caller ID which read, "Akutagawa, Michiko" Suddenly Jirou blushed and said, "Oh, my mom called earlier." He quickly pressed next.  
"Atobe, Keigo"  
Jirou busted up. "Atobe-buchou?! Haha"  
"I wonder, why would he call here?" pondered Ryoma  
"Oh," Explained Jirou, "He has a pet cat that's sick all the time. He always calls about the latest dietary supplements and whatnot."  
"Ahh."  
Jirou pressed next as the two of them hovered over the small box, anxiously awaiting the name of Mizuki's hot date. After a few seconds nothing happened, so Jirou pressed the next button again.  
Ryoma stared wide eyed.  
"Oh..." Whispered Jirou slowly, "I guess that was the last call."  
The two friends stared at each other in disbelief.  
"I think," said Jirou, "that the first thing to do is to find out if Atobe really has a cat!"  
Ryoma nodded, but reminded him, "Hey, how about that training?"  
"Right," Jirou checked the clock. 7:45. They wasted 45 minutes, but there was still plenty of time. _

They stepped into a large room with several cages. It was heated far above room temperature and had a thermometer on the wall that read 88 degrees farenheit. Several exotic birds filled the room. Most of the smaller ones inside the cages, the larger ones just roaming about freely. "We generally refer to this room as 'the aviary'" Jirou proceeded to explain, "Though many of us just refer to it as 'the sweat shack.'" Ryoma grunted in agreement. Jirou scanned the store, then said, "If there's no customers in the store, we're allowed to take off our work aprons and shirts when cleaning the aviary." Ryoma nodded, and the two of them piled up their clothing outside the door. For the first time, Ryoma noticed Jirou's build. It was very sleek, he was a pretty skinny kid. 'After seeing speed like his, I shouldn't be this suprised._' thought Ryoma, as he then dismissed the idea and concentrated on the task at hand. _

Meanwhile, Eiji was walking down the street, in one of his quiet sentimental moods. He always set out with no particular destination, but somehow always ended up at the same spot. He felt free that way. After all, maybe that's how it was supposed to be? He liked pondering stuff like that.  
Quietly, he entered his favorite pet store, and went straight to the turtles. Of course, he had named them all, but neither ginji nor hiroshi seemed to be up to fighting; more like napping. So he slipped over to the tropical fish section. They'd gotten a new shipment of angelfish. He kinda regretted that Oishi wasn't there to see them. He smiled: Oishi would have to come along one of these days. He'd like it here.

Jirou was plenty busy teaching Ryoma about cleaning parrot cages.  
"These are lovebirds: see how they kiss?"  
Ryoma nodded.  
"The chaff at the bottom will blow away with just a little wind, but the seeds are heavy enough to stay in place. You blow it, like this, watch:"  
Jirou took a deep breath and proceeded to blow all the chaff from the cage.  
"Okay, now its your turn."  
"Allright" agreed Ryoma, "But remember, I've never done this before, so don't make fun of me okay?"  
"Haha, no worries!" Jirou reassured.  
Ryoma drew a deep breath and blew. Nothing happened.  
"No, no... that's all wrong. Your face isn't close enough."  
Ryoma drew another breath and tried again. The chaff barely even stirred from the bottom of the cage.  
"That's better, but don't be afraid to blow harder."  
Ryoma blushed slightly at the inuendo, but when he saw Jirou's face, he decided the implication had been completely on accident. He drew a deep breath, and tried once more. This time, all the excess chaff flew away.  
"Now, that's what i like to see!" Laughed Jirou.

Eiji decided that he would go try and make the parrots talk to him. It was fun, cause sometimes they repeated noises that they heard a lot. One of the cockatiels made the sound of a vacuum cleaner. It was hilarious. One of the conures even swore. It was amusing. He strolled over to the door, but stopped as he heard voices. 'That's Chibi!!!' he realized. He started to listen in on what he could hear of the conversation. He recognized Jirou's voice as well.

"...lovebirds. See how they kiss?"

Eiji froze. 'Okay... that's weird.' His brain told him. Then he told his brain not to jump to conclusions.

"You blow it. Like this. Watch:"

Eiji gulped as he realized there was a large pile of clothing outside the door to the aviary.

"...remember I've never done this before, so don't make fun of me, okay?"

Eiji started to hyperventilate. This was so much more than he could take in one day. First he ran out of toothpaste, now this. He thought he might go into shock.

"no, no that's all wrong. your face isn't close enough."

He pinched himself. now he knew he was in shock.

"don't be afraid to blow harder..."

Eiji nearly hiccuped in suprise. How disturbing! Then, 'oh crap!!! what if they see me here?!_' Eiji took a step back. Then another. And another. When he was at the entrance of the store, he turned, and ran away as fast as he possibly could, yelling words of nonsense at passers-by. _

Upon returning home, Eiji refused dinner and went straight to the bubble bath. All through practice next week, no one, including Echizen himself, could figure out why he was mumbling about Chibi being so young, and something about hyotei and pet stores.


	3. The black gate

_Mizuki flew off to Atobe's house on a magic carpet_. Okay, not really. Though getting from place to place in his newest novel seemed a heck of a lot cooler than… _public transportation_. Whatever. He glanced up from his book and stared out the bus window. He wondered why he was going to such lengths for a friend's cat.

The bus stopped abruptly. The driver looked at Mizuki and yelled out, "Last stop, kiddo. This is it." Suddenly snapped out of his daydreaming, Mizuki grabbed his bag and dashed down the stairs. His feet his solid ground, the bus doors slammed closed, and it screeched off. The taillights drifted off into the distance. When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realized he was in the middle of nowhere. Was this some kind of trick?! There was no house for miles! What was he going to do?

About that time was when he realized a tall black gate with winding spires that seemed to be way higher than needed. _Creepy_, thought Mizuki_, It could be like the gates of Hell or Morodor or something_. Then again, it was probably the darkness playing tricks on his eyes. _Oh, That's right_, recalled Mizuki, _He told me some sort of gate code_. He walked over to the keypad and punched in 6-6-2-6. Within about a minute, a limosine pulled up and the black gate opened automatically. Mizuki just gaped. Who lived like that?

The maid inside looked at him apologetically and stated, "Very sorry, Master Keigo likes to greet his guest personally when they arrive, but he's been up in his room all day with Keira."

_Keira. That must be the cat_, Mizuki thought.

The limosine stopped outside of a tremendous double door. (It was huge! No wonder they had people hired specifically to open doors!) Mizuki stepped out of the car and looked up at the doorframe. It was maybe 2 and a half or 3 times his own height! The doors were opened for him and he stepped inside. _Oh! This is awesome! I never knew Atobe lived in a castle! Well, practically a castle!_ He stared wide-eyed at famous paintings, cathedral ceilings, and stained glass windows.

It seemed like they walked forever. The house never seemed to end. By now he had been herded through endless corridors and rooms, and had lost all track of where he was. Luckily the butler and maid beside him knew exactly where they were headed. The next door they walked through was a completely clear crystal door. Upon entering, before him were acres of tropical garden. Colorful parrots flitted in and out among the branches and ripe oranges grew on the trees. _Wow…_ _Amazing_. Mizuki decided that he could stop being surprised now. As far as he was concerned Atobe's house was the eighth wonder of the world. That was even before he saw the Olympic-sized swimming pool, four tennis courts, and ballroom.

When they stepped out of the garden and back into the house, the maid and butler slowed to a stop outside of a door and rang a bell on the wall. _Ding-ding_. "Come in!" shouted Atobe's voice. _Finally, something familiar!_ Thought Mizuki. The maid and butler bowed simultaneously, and left him to his own devices from that point on.

He opened the door and greeted his buddy informally. "Yo." Though personally, he wanted to add, _why didn't you ever tell me that you lived in a castle?!_ However, his greeting didn't receive a "Yo" in return. Instead Atobe looked up from his position of laying on the bed and said, "Thank you for coming here."

"Not a problem." He replied as he spectualted the room. Atobe was laying on a bed of roses next to Keira, who was a purebred angorra with long, pure white fur and stunning green eyes. A bed of roses?! His first thought was that someone should take a picture. His second thought was that he wondered if he ever had girls over. _What a loser I am! Of course he does!_ He nearly blushed at his own thought. Atobe was one of the most popular people at his school, he gathered that just by a couple tennis matches against Hyotei.

He tried not to get too distracted, but being in a room with his friend laying on a bed of roses with his friend seemed really… weird. It was distracting whether he wanted it to be or not.

"W-what's wrong with her?" Mizuki asked to get his mind off the bed.

"I don't know. She's just been laying there. She won't eat anything. I've been trying to get her to eat all day."

Gulping, and realizing he couldn't pretend to stare out the window anymore, he dared to glance down at the bed. _What the heck?!_ A closer look showed him that the roses were in fact printed on the bed sheets. _Oh my gosh... I freaked out for no reason._ He sighed a breath of relief. All the weirdness flew out of the room, and Mizuki sat down on the bed next to Atobe and Keira.

Mizuki proceeded to take the kitten's vital signs. Heart rate, blood pressure, etc. Apparently Mizuki showed some shock in his face as he read the information, because Atobe grabbed his arm and said, "Mizuki! What's wrong?!"

It was no use lying to make Atobe feel better. He looked up with a sad face.

"Her blood pressure is very low. I think… if its okay… you better send her home with me tonight. My dad is a vet. If she has any chance, that will be it. If you don't wanna leave her… you can stay at my house for the night, but I'll have to warn you…" He looked around himself, "Its nothing like this."

Atobe smiled and shook his head. "Thank you. that would be great. I would love to."

He rung a bell signaling the nearest maid and told her, "Get Keira ready to travel, and tell the cooks to start preparing us dinner."

_This was too amazing_, thought Mizuki as he ate some unnamed delicacy. What a day. He suddenly remembered work. He was sorry to push training the new kid onto Jirou, but it had been worth it, and strangely enough, Jirou seemed more than happy to do it. Maybe he liked the idea of bossing someone around? Who knew? He guessed he would see how it went tomorrow.

On the Limo ride home, Mizuki and Atobe talked about a lot of things, from childhood memories, to when Atobe first got Keira, to when they both started playing tennis. He was glad Atobe was so easy to talk to. Still, he was a little embarrassed that his entire house, though not by any means a small house, was maybe about the size of Atobe's bedroom on each floor. As the car pulled up to Mizuki's house, he inquired, "Sure you're alright staying here?" Atobe smiled and said, "Of course."

They grabbed Keira's travel box and headed into Mizuki's house.

"Hey dad? This is my friend Atobe Keigo."

After some introductions, Mizuki stated, "Dad, we have a sick kitty in here. Her blood pressure is really low. I gave her iron already, but I don't know what else to to because she won't eat."

Mizuki's father nodded. He took Keira out of her box and felt around her stomache. She weakly mewed, and his dad looked at both of them and said, "It looks like internal bleeding. I can give her blood clotters, but as for whether she makes it or not, that will have to wait till morning."

Atobe went pale. _Makes it or not?! It was that bad?!_

Mizuki put his arm around Atobe's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I knew it was bad. But I didn't know it was this bad."

Mizuki's dad looked at them and said, "Its late, why don't you two go to bed," then he looked at Atobe, "I will watch her through the night, but you are welcome to get up and check on her if you get worried during the night."

Atobe nodded, and they went to sleep in the bunk beds in Mizuki's room.

"It used to be my brother's." He replied to Atobe's questioning look. The answer seemed to satisfy Atobe, and he crawled into bed. Mizuki hit the light switch, and the room filled up with darkness. Suddenly that same weird feeling came back as he had earlier with the whole the bed of roses experience. Unsure of whether he wanted to walk closer to Atobe or closer to his pillow, he forced his legs to carry him to the top bunk, and he tried to shake the feeling entirely.

He slipped under the covers, and tried to clear his mind. It was a long time before he fell asleep, but he was pretty sure Atobe never slept at all.


	4. Good news and bad news

When Mizuki woke up the next morning, he was alone in the room. He rolled over and looked at the alarm clock. 8:30, Saturday morning. _Yawn_. As the fog of sleep cleared from his mind, he suddenly remembered Atobe was over, and jumped off the top bunk.

The good thing about his hair, reasoned Mizuki, was that it seemed to look the same day in and day out. A look in the mirror confirmed his theory as he touseled his curls out of habit. He threw on some pants, and then searched for a shirt. _Which one should I wear?_ He went through a bunch of white T-shirts and black band T-shirts. _Maybe I could impress someone with my good taste in music?_ He laughed at his own thought, but it was true, he was proud that he had gone to see 3 Nittle Grasper concerts before they broke up.

However, before he could decide on what shirt to grace his lovely body, the door quietly swung open and Atobe walked through it to catch a glimpse of Mizuki standing in the middle of the room, shirtless, not really knowing what to do. Untrue to his quickening heartbeat, Mizuki calmly said, "Oh! H-hey!" _Oh crap! I stuttered!_ He turned around before Atobe could see him blush, and picked out the first shirt he found. It was a pink one. However, in order to look graceful, he put it on as if that were the shirt he'd meant to pick out the entire time. He turned back around, to see Atobe staring at him in silence. _This would be a good time to crack a joke!_ His brain pounded.

"Umm… If anyone asks, this is lavender." He pointed to his shirt and smiled warmly. Atobe laughed out loud, and it was contagious, so Mizuki began laughing too.

Feeling more relaxed, he said, "So… how's Keira?"

"Still here." He smiled. Mizuki nodded, though not really knowing what he meant by that.

"Hey, dad?" He shouted as they made their way into the living room. "How is she?"

"The problem is exactly as I suspected, which means good news and bad news."

Atobe looked at Mizuki for a hint of what this meant, but Mizuki seemed to be as clueless as he was.

"The good news," Continued his dad, "Is that she will make it out of this day."

Atobe sighed relief, but Mizuki worried. "What's the bad news?"

Mizuki's dad looked at Atobe. "She's a purebred angorra, you said?" At his nod, he explained, "Purebreds are prone to genetic defects, and rarely live to their full age. In this case, hemophelia. It can be treated, but not cured. I'm sorry. You will have to watch her very carefully."

Mizuki's dad stopped explaining, and smiled instead. "What's the sad look for, kiddo? She's alive! Go see her!"

Atobe rushed out of the room. Mizuki started to follow, but his dad pulled him aside.

"Now isn't the time, but you need to make your friend understand that because of her condition she could bleed to death from a single cut. That is what almost happened to her last night. I am very surprised she made it."

He searched for a reaction, but Mizuki simply looked down and replied, "I already knew."

With that, Mizuki's dad said, "In any case, she will be perfectly safe here, and should stay here for a couple more days. Why don't you take your friend out and have some fun? Go play at the park or buy some ice cream, or whatever it is you kids like to do these days. Here's twenty bucks if you need it."

He walked into the room with Atobe and Keira. Atobe beamed.

"So she's gonna be okay, huh?" Atobe reassured himself.

"That's what it looks like." He smiled back. "Dad says we should get out of the house and relax a bit. What do you say?"

"That sounds great! I don't even care where we go; I've hardly been outside this entire week!"

So they walked out the front door of Mizuki's house, not having the faintest clue of where they were headed. It felt right that way. Like they could go anywhere or do anything they wanted.

As they passed a nearby park, the tennis courts seemed to call out to them. Looking at Atobe, Mizuki laughed, "You wanna go check it out?"

"Heck yeah!"


	5. YOU DID WHAT!

_note: there are references to the events in chapter 2_

It was finally Saturday! Momo woke up extra early and hopped on his bike to one of its many familiar stops.

"Echizen! Get up!"

A sleepy kid opened the door, looked at Momo for a brief moment, and shut the door back on his face.

"Oy! Echizen! Is that any way to treat a Senpai!" He pounded on the door some more. "Don't you remember that we have a doubles match today!"

Echizen reluctantly reopened the door. "Oh yeah!" He hurried to grab his stuff.

_Geeze,_ thought Momo, _This kid_…

Ryoma hopped on the back of Momo's bike despite his dad yelling, "Don't do that with other boys!" out the window.

"I wonder who Jirou's partner will be?" Inquired Momo on the way there.

"I dunno. He didn't mention it at work."

They had decided to meet halfway between Seigaku and Hyotei, which was actually St. Rudolph's territory, but he doubted there would be any problems. He pulled into the park and saw Jirou and his doubles partner.

"_Kikumaru-senpai_! What are you doing here!"

"Hey, hey now! That's no way to treat my doubles partner! You never said my partner had to be from Hyotei." Jirou came in defense.

Eiji, however seemed to be bothered by something. _Strange_, thought Momo_, Kikumaru-senpai has been acting weird the last couple days._ Kikumaru was at the bursting point. He couldn't keep inside what he'd overheard at the pet store anymore. He looked at Jirou, then pointed at Echizen.

"Chibi! You are too young for that sort of thing!"

Ryoma gaped. Jirou gaped. Momo gaped.

"Um, what sort of thing, Kikumaru-senpai?"

"Don't think I don't know your secret, chibi!"

"Echizen! You have a secret!" Momo wondered why he hadn't been told.

"I have a secret?" Echizen wondered what his own secret was.

"Spill it, Echizen-kun." Jirou was ready to hear what this was all about.

"That's right! You shouldn't be keeping secrets either!" Eiji accused Jirou.

"Me! What did I do! Why am I involved?"

Eiji was so frustrated that no one was fessing up. He had heard it clear as day with his own two ears hadn't he! Finally, he just screamed, "_Echizen! You shouldn't do that with other boys_!"

Echizen gaped, and stuttered, "Well, we've ridden a bike together since Junior high… I never saw it as a big deal."

"_You were using a bike_!"

Echizen looked at Momo, who looked at Jirou. None of them were coming up with anything.

Atobe and Mizuki were surprised that the first thing they saw when they came into the park was Kikumaru Eiji from Seigaku High running the other way, having some sort of fit. _First of all, what was he doing here, and second of all, what was he so disturbed about_!

"Oy! Kikumaru-kun! Over here!"

Eiji, who seemed to be in some sort of a panic, came over to them and fumed, something incoherent about 'chibi'.

Seeing the owner of the pet shop, he imparted, "You have no idea what I saw in your store a couple nights ago!"

Mizuki stared at him weirdly and said, "What did you see?"

Eiji lowered his voice to a whisper and said, "A pile… of clothes. Can you tell me why there was a pile of clothes on the floor?"

"Umm…" Thought Mizuki, "Its not uncommon to leave work aprons on the floor if they're dirty."

"Nope, that's not it. I heard everything that happened... well… I didn't want them to find me… so I ran away."

Atobe looked at Mizuki, "Umm… what?"

Mikuzi shook his head and said, "If he's trying to imply something went on in the back room with the employees… he's wrong. We haven't had that problem since we fired Sengoku. Besides, the only female employee in our company is our regional manager, and she's… 46 years old. A customer would have to be involved. We can keep track of all the people who have entered the store by surviellance."

Mizuki smiled. "So you wanna check the tapes? Its like detective work." _I think I'm already drawing a conclusion, too…_ he thought.

Atobe laughed and said it would be fun to watch Kikumaru-san flip out on video. Maybe they could send it to Japan's Funniest Home Videos and win thousands?

For the time being, Atobe and Mizuki went over to the courts to see if any tennis matches were going on.

The three high school students stood on the tennis courts bummed out, and completely stumped as to what was wrong with Eiji. As they just stood, not knowing whether to pack up and go home, or call someone else to fill in, Jirou suddenly gulped. He tapped Echizen hard on the shoulder and whispered, "_Hey! I don't think Atobe has a cat after all!_"

_Holy crap_! Thought Jirou as he watched Mizuki and Atobe approach together, _we were right! They're together after all!_

While Momo stood blissfully unaware, Jirou and Ryoma just let their mouths hang open in shock.

Mizuki was in no mood to deal with work on a Saturday. He looked at Jirou and Echizen and said, "So, I leave you guys in charge of the store for a night and you guys work naked!"

"What the heck! When were we naked!"

"Hmm… according to Kikumaru, all your clothes were on the floor. They couldn't very well have been on your body if they were on the floor."

"We weren't naked!"

"Umm, I really hope you're right, cause I'm the one who has to check the surveillance tapes!"

"Check them then! We only did our job! Besides," Jirou pointed at Mizuki, "Atleast I don't call my boyfriend while I'm on the clock!"

"What!"

"We saw the caller ID! Now we know your excuse was fake!"

"Baka, I don't have a boyfriend. I'm straight. Besides, I take personal calls on my cell phone." Mizuki wondered where the heck they came up with this stuff sometimes.

"Oh yeah? Well we found out anyways." stated Echizen.

"I don't understand." Mizuki put his hand on his head, "Just who exactly do you think I'm dating!"

Confused, Jirou and Echizen looked in Atobe's direction and nodded.

"What!" Shouted Mizuki, "Where the heck did you get _that_ idea!"

"Whoa!" Interjected Momo, "You guys are all dating!"

"NO! We're not!" Shouted the other four.

"Umm, let's see," Pondered Jirou, "Where _did _we get that idea, Echizen? I know the first thing is that you left somewhere in a hurry, so we tried to figure out where you went. We checked the caller ID, and found Atobe's number."

"What kind of proof is that! Just because I was at his house doesn't mean…"

"So you _were_ at his house! Echizen, we were right!"

Mizuki blushed. Then Atobe decided to come to his rescue… sort of. Atobe wrapped his arms around Mizuki as a joke and said, "So what if I swing that way? What are you gonna say about it? You two naked lovebirds are the same way…"

Mizuki's thought he would pass out. Atobe continued to hold him and smile. Jirou and Ryoma didn't know what else to do other than insistently deny the naked lovebird factor.

Momo, shocked beyond all reason, blurted, "Mizuki-san! You're uke!"

"Nooo!" shouted Mizuki, "Nothing actually happened!"

Reluctantly, Atobe let go, and said, "Yeah, he's right. Nothing actually did happen. I just wanted to see what you guys would do."

"Atobe, what the heck were you thinking!" Mizuki demanded.

Atobe shrugged. "Did you see the look on their faces? They were about ready to jump into each others arms, like they probably do anyways."

Jirou and Ryoma blushed and said, "That's not true!"

"Hey, Echizen! That's the first time I've ever seen you blush!" Momo mused. He was the manliest one here, he decided, and that made him smile.

Echizen looked straight at Mizuki and challenged him, "Let's go watch those surveillance tapes. You'll see I'm right."


	6. Very frightened Ichinen

Echizen looked straight at Mizuki and challenged him, "_Let's go watch those surveillance tapes. You'll see I'm right_."

"_You're on_!" Shouted Mizuki, "_Let's do it here and now_! _I say we go clear this up_!"

So they set off to Mizuki's pet store. Halfway there, Momo had an internal conflict between wanting to watch the tapes, and wanting to swing by WacDonald's. Eventually, his stomache won the battle.

"_Hey, guys, I think I'm gonna stop by WacDonald's. Anyone want anything?_"

"_Yeah_," Snickered Atobe, "_Ryoma and Jirou want a plate of spaghetti they can slurp together_."

"_Hey! Cut it out! That isn't funny! Oh, and Momo-senpai, can you get me 2 double cheeseburgers_?"

"_Yeah, Atobe-buchou," _Jirou stared at the ground_, "WacDonald's doesn't even sell spaghetti. That was a stretch_."

"_Sorry, I was just trying to lighten things up. Dorks_."

Turning to Momo, Jirou smiled, "_Yeah, can I have a milkshake_?"

"_Me too_." Chimed in Mizuki.

"_I don't eat WacDonald's_." Said Atobe off-handedly, when he was inquired of.

"_Well_," Suggested Mizuki, "_When we get to the pet shop, you can have your choice of cat food, dog food, bird food, or lizard food_."

They all laughed.

"_Okay, okay, I get the point. I'll take a chicken salad and lemonade, thanks_."

Meanwhile, Fuji Yuuta was walking through the park, (it was St. Rudolph territory after all), when out of a nearby bush, Inui mumbled, "_Ii data_…"

"_Inui from Seigaku! What is he doing, that creepy old guy_?"

"_According to my calculations_," Inui said as he popped his head out of the bush to answer Yuuta's rhetorical question, "_I am only 7 months and 16 days older than you are, and furthermore_," He pointed in the direction of 5 arguing figures on the nearest tennis court, "_I'm getting data for my tennis matches_."

"Whatever." Mumbled Yuuta as he wandered off.

Suddenly Yuuta's cell phone was spouting the theme song to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

"_Hello!_"

"_Hello Yuuta_!" Great, it was his brother, Syuuske.

"_ahh… yeah, hey aniki_." Why did he insist on calling him for no reason?

"_Sis baked you a pie; a blackberry one_."

"_Okay… whatever. Yeah that Inui guy from your team is over here being a weirdo_."

"_Spying?"_

_"Yeah."_

_"Sounds like Inui. Don't worry about it_." **click**

Yuuta briefly walked within hearing range of the 5 figures standing on the court, but as soon as he heard the words '_naked lovebird_' flipped a 180 and walked the other direction. He didn't need to be accused of that sort of thing. No one needed to know that he had seen Mizuki there…

As soon as Fuji hung up the phone with Yuuta, he phoned Inui.

"_What's going on?_"

"_Something big… it appears Echizen, and his co-worker Akutagawa Jirou from Hyotei are in question about their activities during work_."

"_What kind of activities_?"

"_16 and 17 year old boys alone in a store? Use your imagination. Anyhow, it appears that they are headed to the pet store right now to check the surveillance tapes. I think we should call Tezuka and get down there_."

"_Right_." **click**

Inui immediately phoned Tezuka.

"_Tezuka, big news, it seems that you should watch some video tapes in which Echi-" _ **click**

_Dang_, thought Inui, _He hung up on me even faster than normal_! He called back, but Tezuka didn't answer. On purpose.

So Inui quickly redialed Fuji's number.

"_Hey, can you call Tezuka and tell him? I'm having that one problem again_."

Fuji laughed.

"_Don't worry. I'll get him down there_."

Inui could have sworn Fuji was so sure of himself, that he winked. _What a scary kid_, he thought to himself.

So Fuji called up Tezuka.

"_Oy, Tezuka."_

_"Hello, Fuji."_

_"I just found a slight problem with one of our team members that maybe you should be aware of_."

"_Oh?"_

_See_? Thought Fuji, _it was this easy to get Tezuka's interest. Really, what did Inui have problems with_?

"_Yes. It seems Echizen is a suspect for something, though I don't know for what yet_."

"_A suspect? Did he commit a crime_?"

"_I don't know. All I really know is that whatever it was happened while he was at work. They are going down there right now to examine the evidence. He could be in a lot of trouble. I think maybe we should be there._ _He may need our help._"

"_Okay. I'll be there in 5 minutes. Want me to pick you up on the way?"_

_"That'd be great_."

_Tezuka was easy to manipulate if you just knew how to do it,_ thought Fuji, who proceeded to cross his legs and relax until Tezuka came to pick him up.

Momo hurried into WacDonald's. _Oh man, I just want the left side of the menu_! As he waited in line, he spotted some familiar shorties that had also come to eat. His Kohai! "_Oy!_ _Ichinen! Over here_!"

"_Momo-chan-senpai_!"

"_Hey, how goes it_?"

"_Nothing much._ _We got hungry after playing 5 straight games of Go_." As much as Momo had on his mind, the thought that popped into his head just then was that all through his junior high years, he had never thought Horio would _ever_ get a deeper voice. Then again, nowadays, he was bragging about his two years of Go experience, so some things never did change with that kid.

"_Momo-chan-senpai? Is there something wrong? You look bothered_."

"_Err… sort of_…" As he failed to stifle a snicker.

"_Oh my gosh, you know something funny! Spit it out Momo-chan_!"

"_Well_…" Momo had to be careful on this one, "_You didn't hear hear it from me, and we really don't know for sure yet, but_…" He lowered his voice to a whisper, "_We think Echizen may have done something… questionable with another boy_."

…and the Ichinen's eyes had never been wider.


	7. I could have just watched a doubles matc...

_Disclaimer_: Yeah, so this is my first story here, and I notice how everyone has these cute little disclaimers being like, 'oh… I'm so sad that I don't ownxor Fuji or Tezuka.' Or whatever. So in other words, are you saying that if I don't post this disclaimer, then I am claiming to be the owner of all the Tenipuri boys! My deluded mind tells me that I own them all anyways, so what does it matter? I don't.

Now that that's settled… To all who reviewed:

_May Neuma:_ Thanks for reading, I'm glad I could make you laugh. Maybe I will put some math jokes in there just for us.

_RubyMoon17_: Thanks for your reviews, fellow crack lover. It deludes me into thinking I'm actually popular. I really do appreciate it!

_Craze Izumi_: Thanks for so many reviews! I appreciate every one! I'm glad that you have stuck around to read all my junk. I hope this next chapter amuses you.

_Royale_: Thanks for your reviews. I'm totally psyched that I'm on someone's favorite authors list! I mean, I'm a math geek. I never expected myself to be able to write.

_Yoko-chan_: I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for taking the time to review!

**Nighttime Job Chapter 7**

Eiji had run off from Ryoma and his friends in a huff. _How do you even use a bicycle like that anyways_! Eiji tried to picture it, but nothing was came to mind.  
_Eek! Why do I want a mental picture_!

Suddenly a familiar voice called out to him.  
"Eiji! What's wrong?"  
"Oishi! I'm sorry! I found out a terrible secret, and I couldn't keep it in!"

Realizing they were right by the pet store, he said, "Here, I'll show you!"

He grabbed Oishi's wrist and dragged him into the pet store.  
"Okay, I was back here…" Eiji pointed towards the aviary, "and you know that kid Jirou from Hyotei? Well I heard him and Echizen… _doing…things_"  
"Doing things? What do you mean, _doing things_? Like, making out!"  
"No, worse!"  
Oishi gasped. "And you were the only one that knew about it?"  
Eiji nodded, slightly paler than usual. "I brought it up with them today, but they denied it."  
Oishi looked at the poor kid's face and realized he was traumatized. "Maybe you should try and get your mind off it, eh?" Eiji nodded, so he decided to suggest something. "Let's go look at the fishes."  
Eiji attempted to smile. "Yeah, I guess so. I've been meaning to show you the fishes here for a long time."

Meanwhile, Tezuka's red convertible pulled up to Fuji's house. _My I like riding in this car_, thought Fuji to himself as he opened up the door and hopped in.  
"Oi, Tezuka." Fuji smiled at Tezuka who merely nodded in return.

"Momo-chan-senpai! You mean Echizen is really gay!" Demanded Horio.  
Waving his hands frantically, Momo interjected, "We don't know for sure yet!"  
Realizing he was incapable of calming their excitement, Momo winked and said, "Well, you didn't hear it from me."  
Momo placed his order and went on his way, leaving the Ichinen to their own devices. It took everything in him to save those 11 cheeseburgers for the… ahh… movie he would be watching.

Atobe, Mizuki, Echizen, and Jirou approached the pet shop.  
"Why did Momo leave us alone?" Joked Atobe, "So we could have a double date?"  
Jirou and Mizuki snickered, but Echizen stopped in his tracks upon spotting Tezuka and Fuji waiting for them outside the pet store. Tezuka was not impressed with Atobe's joke, and he showed it, and Fuji practically hissed at the sight of Mizuki.

"Buchou? Fuji-senpai? What are you doing here?" Ryoma did not like the look on his captain's face. In fact, it felt like his insides were melting into ooze.  
"As your buchou, I should know what kind of things you are getting into. The pillar of Seigaku shouldn't be caught in meaningless scandals. Did you get careless?"  
Ryoma frowned. "No, I didn't actually do anything. Kikumaru-senpai just-"

"I what, Chibi!" His sentence was interrupted by the fact that Kikumaru himself happened to nearly walk into him on his way out the pet store.

"Kikumaru-senpai… Oishi-senpai… what are you doing here?"

Luckily for Eiji, Oishi took initiative to answer the question.

"We're browsing the pet store. What are you doing here?" He asked, suspicious that the buchou, Fuji, Echizen, and several others from various schools were there.

"Betsuni." Echizen looked away attempting to hide how bad he was lying.

"Betsuni, my butt!" Laughed Atobe, "We're gonna watch those tapes and see what you were really up to last night while you 'worked'"  
Ryoma gaped, but Tezuka, suddenly confused, demanded, "Fuji, what exactly is this about?"  
"Well, Inui told me that-"  
He was interrupted by a rustling noise as Inui walked out of a nearby bush.  
"What a festive gathering. It seems that I am here to obtain data."

Meanwhile, Jirou and Mizuki, as employees, had walked into the store to locate the surveillance tapes.  
"So, Jirou… you know you can tell me. Were you and Echizen really doing anything last night?"  
Off-handedly, Jirou mumbled, "I wish..." After a shocked look from Mizuki snapped him back into reality, he jumped up and squeaked, "I MEAN, NO!"  
"Its okay Jirou." Mizuki assured him, "I'm sure everyone is tempted at some point."  
"Yeah," Agreed Jirou, "Like you and your shady Atobe calling?"  
"What! Don't be ridiculous, I just had to go to his house… and then he spent the night at mine." Mizuki said matter of factly.  
"Okay, what are you accusing me of? Look at the types of things you're doing!"  
"Atleast _I_ do them on my own time!" Retaliated the pink-shirted boy. Suddenly realizing he had lost himself in the argument,Mizuki blushed and added, "Err… what things? There weren't any things!"  
They looked at each other in a complete stand still, each knowing that they were not in a good position.  
"Umm… let's not mention this to anyone, okay?"  
Mizuki nodded. "I'm not telling if you aren't."

Outside, Inui scribbled furiously in his notebook.  
"Tezuka-buchou!" Pleaded Ryoma, "You have to believe me. Nothing happened. Kikumaru just made this all up!"  
"What! Say that again Chibi! I heard it with my own two ears!"

Atobe suddenly decided that he wasn't getting nearly enough attention and yelled out, "Where's my chicken salad!"  
Momo had just walked up when he heard the cry for a chicken salad.

"Hold your horses, I'm coming!" Shouted Momo who delivered the goods to Atobe. Once he had a pile of food small enough to see over, he exclaimed, "What's with all the people here! I didn't buy enough cheeseburgers for all of you!" He looked at his precious commodity of 11 cheeseburgers.  
As he handed Echizen a milkshake, he said, "Oh, by the way, the Ichinen trio think you're gay now. Sorry."  
"Momo-senpai! How could you!" pouted Ryoma.

Mizuki and Jirou appeared at the doorway and said, "Umm, the tapes are ready now."  
"It appears that these tapes are supposedly either going to free Echizen from all doubt or really getting him in trouble." Inui explained, partly to Tezuka, and partly to the wall.

Everyone made their way to the back of the pet store where the video tapes were cued. Jirou hit the play button, as Mizuki explained, "_We identified that Kikumaru walked into the store twice in the past two days. Last night at 8:04PM, and Today, half an hour ago. Since Kikumaru says he saw something while he was here, we need only look at the tapes during the time he was in the store,_" He looked over at Eiji, who nodded in agreement.

Inui felt the need to scribble in down every little detail in his notebook regarding the tape. '_8:07pm. Kikumaru looks at angelfish'_. Everything seemed normal about the tape until Eiji walked over to the aviary, where he immediately froze in place. _Oh no. the aviary_! Jirou suddenly remembered. _Someone who actually took my inuendos seriously was in the store_! Eiji was visibly sweating on the screen, though little sound could be heard. The few words they could make out were '_birds_' and '_see_', both perfectly normal words.

"Stop! Put it on pause!" Shouted Eiji, "See, look! There is the pile of clothes I saw!"  
Looking closer at the tape, Mizuki sighed, "Actually, I can only make out the work apron in that picture." Explaining further he said, "We require our employees to take off their work aprons while they go in the aviary. Its filthy in there."

They pressed play. Momo started laughing really hard at the part where Eiji ran out the door yelling. It looked like there was nothing wrong and he just freaked out at random.  
Oishi turned around and said, "Be quiet, Momo! You're being really insensitive!"  
Momo nodded, and they skipped to the part that had happened today.

What appeared on the tape next was a shock to the pillar of Seigaku. It showed Eiji holding hands with Oishi and walking into the pet store. Further into the tape, they looked at fishes and smiled sweetly at each other. Since the sound was low quality, the only intelligible words were, '_doing things_.' Jirou sighed in relief. Nothing suspicious had been on the tape.

Echizen jumped out of his seat. "Kikumaru-senpai! I can't believe you are accusing me of things when you are the one doing them!"  
"O-chibi!" Yelled Eiji, "Take that back! I heard you with my own two ears! And I wasn't doing anything wrong!"  
"What you just did on that tape was more than I've ever done!"  
"Liar!"

Tezuka was pretty pissed at the wasted hour of his life. "Fuji," He said, "I didn't need a video tape to tell me that Kikumaru and Oishi like to hold hands." He made his way towards the door. "I could just watch a doubles match."  
Oishi was shocked at the blatant statement coming from his buchou, "Tezuka!"  
Fuji frowned, "I agree. Inui, you really mislead us about what was supposed to be on those tapes."  
"Isn't anybody happy that I'm not gay!" Echizen demanded.


End file.
